Data object for selective per-message participation of an external user in a meeting chat

ABSTRACT

The techniques disclosed herein improve existing systems by generating a data object indicative of a defined group of users of a communication session, messages being communicated between the defined group of users, and permissions defined for the defined group of users to access content of the communication session. In response to receiving a selection of a message set including a subset of the messages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-member user who is not a member of the defined group, the system updates the first data object to include the selected message set and subsequent messages exchanged between the non-member user and a subset of the users in the defined group directed to the selected message set, and permissions defined for the additional participant to limit full access to other subsequent messages in the defined group not directed to the selected message set.

BACKGROUND

There are a number of systems and applications that provide featuresthat assist users with communications features on their devices. Forexample, some systems allow users to communicate and collaborate usinglive video streams, live audio streams, and other forms of real-time,text-based, or image-based applications. The meeting chat of an onlinecommunications system is typically used for a quick exchange of ideasand messages pertaining to the topic/agenda of the meeting among meetingparticipants in the form of direct or side conversations, which mayfurther include the exchange of files, images and other richcollaborative and interactive objects. Often, the meeting participantsmay want to consult or share a specific piece of information/messagewith others who are not currently in the meeting. However, thecommunications system may not readily allow the meetingorganizer/participants to add the external user to the ongoing meetingor its chat without having to start a new meeting.

Systems that do not readily enable such users to activate such featurescan cause a host of issues and negatively impact the effectiveness andaccessibility of a communication system in such scenarios. Computingdevices that do not facilitate the use of such features can lead toproduction loss and inefficiencies with respect to a number of computingresources. For instance, participants of a communication session, suchas an online meeting, may need to start another chat thread with theexternal user to pursue a desired discussion. This can lead tofragmented conversations, loss of continuity, and disruption ofproductivity. Content may need to be re-sent when participants misssalient points or cues during the chat. Such activities can lead toinefficient use of network, processor, memory, or other computingresources. Furthermore, security issues may arise as sensitiveinformation may be inadvertently shared with the wrong participants.Also, when a participant's level of engagement is negatively impactedduring a meeting, loss of production may cause a need for prolongedmeetings or follow-up meetings, which in turn take additional computingresources. Such inefficiencies can be exacerbated when a system is usedto provide a collaborative environment for a large number ofparticipants.

Such drawbacks of existing systems can lead to loss of productivity,reduced security, and the inefficient use of computing resources.

SUMMARY

The techniques disclosed herein provide users with a way to allow anexternal user outside a secure messaging group to participate in anongoing meeting's chat on a “per-message” basis, by selecting one ormore existing messages in the group to share and correspond with anexternal user, while keeping the full content of meeting chat andmeeting participant list (roster) private. Privileges or permissions ofthe external participant may be automatically established to includeappropriate permissions for various features of the collaborationsession. At least two different message views may be provided: (1) allmessage view to member users of the secure group; and (2) a limited viewto the non-member user including (a) selected messages from messages inthe group and (b) responses to the shared message.

By allowing an external user to participate in an ongoing meeting's chaton a per-message basis with predetermined access permissions, theexisting users need not add the external participant to the currentmeeting chat and risk sharing the entire conversation history and thenames of all the meeting participants with the external user. Themeeting participant(s) can share only the selected message(s) with theexternal user, and the external user can view only the selectedmessage(s) and can reply and collaborate only around that selectedmessage. Various embodiments allow for establishing the membership ofthe external participant on a per-message basis and allowing theexternal participant's collaboration around that message only. Theexternal user will not be able to view any other messages for which theexternal user does not have permission and will not be able to view theparticipant list of the meeting.

The present disclose also describes the underlying architecture,systems, and data objects that support messaging user interface (UI)functionality that allows an external user outside the secured messaginggroup to participate in an ongoing meeting's chat on a per-messagebasis. The architecture, systems, and data objects allow for selectionof one or more existing messages in the secured messaging group to shareand correspond with an external user, while keeping the full content ofmeeting chat and meeting participant list (roster) private.

In some embodiments, the data object can be a multi-dimensional datastructure that tracks on a per-chat and per-message basis. The datastructure may include a dimension where each individual message isassociated with users and respective permissions for the users, therebyproviding granular control of users and permissions on a per-messagebasis.

The techniques described above can lead to more efficient use ofcomputing resources. In particular, by automating a process forfacilitating participant promotion settings, user interaction with thecomputing device can be improved. The techniques disclosed herein canlead to a more efficient use of computing resources by eliminating theneed for a person to perform a number of manual steps to search,discover, review, display, and select various settings, which may bedifferent for each application and system. The reduction of manualprocesses can lead to fewer inadvertent inputs and errors. This canultimately lead to more efficient use of computing resources such asmemory usage, network usage, processing resources, etc.

Features and technical benefits other than those explicitly describedabove will be apparent from a reading of the following DetailedDescription and a review of the associated drawings. This Summary isprovided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form thatare further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary isnot intended to identify key or essential features of the claimedsubject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determiningthe scope of the claimed subject matter. The term “techniques,” forinstance, may refer to system(s), method(s), computer-readableinstructions, module(s), algorithms, hardware logic, and/or operation(s)as permitted by the context described above and throughout the document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The Detailed Description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures.

References made to individual items of a plurality of items can use areference number with a letter of a sequence of letters to refer to eachindividual item. Generic references to the items may use the specificreference number without the sequence of letters. The same referencenumbers in different figures indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 illustrates aspects of a system for allowing an external user toparticipate in an ongoing meeting's chat on a per-message basis withpredetermined access permissions.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2C illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2D illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2E illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2F illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2G illustrates an example user interface in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3E illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3F illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3G illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3H illustrates an example system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a routine for allowing an external user toparticipate in an ongoing meeting's chat on a per-message basis withpredetermined access permissions according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a routine for allowing an external user toparticipate in an ongoing meeting's chat on a per-message basis withpredetermined access permissions according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a computing system diagram showing aspects of an illustrativeoperating environment for the technologies disclosed herein.

FIG. 7 is a computing architecture diagram showing aspects of theconfiguration and operation of a computing device that can implementaspects of the technologies disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The techniques disclosed herein provide systems with a way to allow anexternal user outside a secure messaging group to participate in anongoing meeting's chat on a per-message basis, by selecting one or moreexisting messages in the group to share and correspond with an externaluser, while keeping the full content of meeting chat and meetingparticipant list (roster) private. Privileges or permissions of theexternal participant may be automatically established to includeappropriate permissions for various features of the collaborationsession. As used herein, an external user or external participant may beany user who is not currently a member of a group of users who areparticipating in a chat session. The group of users may originate asusers who were invited to a collaboration session or who were otherwiseoriginal members of a chat group.

The meeting chat of an online collaboration session is typically usedfor the quick exchange of ideas and messages pertaining to thetopic/agenda of the meeting between meeting participants in variousforms of direct and side conversations, and the sharing of files, imagesand other rich collaborative and interactive objects. Often, the meetingparticipants may want to consult or share a specific piece ofinformation or a particular message with others, either to obtain theirinput or to share a piece of information with them.

On the one hand, meeting participants typically want to collaborate withan external person by sharing information from the meeting, while, onthe other hand, the meeting organizer/participants may not be able toadd the external user to the ongoing meeting or its chat due tosecurity, privacy, or simply just to reduce noise in the ongoingconversation. For example, the external user, once added to a meeting,may be able to see the roster and the topic of the meeting.

In many systems, the only way to collaborate with an external person isto start another chat thread with the external user to discuss aspecific point pertaining to a message or other information. Thisresults in the creation of another chat/conversation, which can lead tofragmented conversations, which mitigates the advantages of having acollaboration session in the meeting chat with all the meeting relatedcontent at one place. New chats/conversations may lose aspects of themeeting context. A centralized and comprehensive meeting space is oneobjective of many collaborative platforms.

Rather than focusing a chat session on the participants of a meetingchat, the present disclosure provides a way to focus a meeting on anindividual message or a group of messages in a meeting chat by allowingone or more messages to be a starting point for a new conversation.Various embodiments describe techniques for creating a messaging andpermission model around individual messages. In some embodiments, eachmessage may have its own membership and permissions. New chat sessionsmay be created with a clear demarcation from the current chat, but canstill be integrated with the larger context of the current chat.

While many of the examples described herein are illustrated aroundstarting chat sessions from selected messages, other meeting objects maybe used to start a new conversation, such as an uploaded file or anyother object that is shareable.

A micro-permissioning model is disclosed that allows externalparticipants to be assigned different privileges and permission ascompared to the participants in the main meeting. For example, externalparticipants may not be allowed to view the roster of participants inthe main meeting or the name of the main meeting. External participantsmay not be allowed to add participants to the new conversation. In someembodiments, the meeting moderator or other participant from the mainmeeting may be provided an option to add permissions to the externalparticipant, such as accessing the meeting recording, or seeing themeeting title. Furthermore, the meeting moderator or other participantmay be provided an option to exclude certain original participants or tootherwise determine the roster of participants of the side chat. In someembodiments, the described techniques can be extended to chat sessionsthat persist beyond the current meeting session.

The described techniques may be extended to enable multiple chats fromthe original meeting, or additional side chats from the first side chatto create nested chat sessions.

Technical problems encountered when adding external participants to chatsessions include a lack of efficient methods for adding external sessionparticipants, which can result in multiple separate chat sessions beingstarted and processed. Lack of a consistent and automated methodologyfor adding for external session participants may result in users havingto repeatedly interrupt processes in order to start new sessions,thereby consuming additional computing, storage, and network resources.Furthermore, another technical problem is the potential lack of securityand privacy which can result from adding an external participant to anexisting chat session, or by starting a new session and inadvertentlysharing the wrong information between sessions.

The technical problems solved by the techniques described herein includelack of or inefficient computing for applying and maintaining promotionefficient chat communications. Technical effects achieved includeimprovements over conventional systems for starting, maintaining, andsecuring chat sessions by more efficiently utilizing processing andstorage resources executed by computing systems in order to executeprocesses for providing nested and secured chat sessions.

Systems and methods consistent with the present disclosure achieve thebenefits noted above by implementing a system configured to allow themeeting participants to collaborate with external participants with aunified and automated experience (by keeping all the conversationspertaining to the meeting in a single place without fragmentation) whileensuring the privacy and security of the meeting topic In response tothe addition of new sessions, the privileges of the externalparticipants may be efficiently or automatically determined for variousfeatures of the collaboration session.

The present disclosure describes a technical solution to allow anexternal user outside a secure messaging group to participate in anongoing meeting's chat on a per-message basis, by selecting one or moreexisting messages in the group to share and correspond with an externaluser, while keeping the full content of meeting chat and meetingparticipant list (roster) private. Privileges or permissions of theexternal participant may be automatically established to includeappropriate permissions for various features of the collaborationsession.

The disclosed embodiments allow an external participant to collaboratewith participants of a meeting chat on a selective per-message basis byallowing meeting participants to share selected messages without sharingthe entire meeting chat content and the list of meeting participants. Insome embodiments, membership of an external participant may beprovisioned on a per-message basis rather than full membership of themeeting chat. The disclosed embodiments can enable improvedcollaboration capabilities and enhanced micro-permissions in the contextof a meeting chat while maintaining the security and privacy aspects ofthe collaboration.

In some embodiments, the security and privacy settings can berole-based. For example, the security and privacy settings may bespecific to an individual participant, and some settings may beapplicable to a group of users, for example members of an organization.In some embodiments, one or more roles may be defined that can beautomatically assigned to a user based on one or more characteristics.For example, if a user is identified as being part of an organization, arole can be automatically assigned to that user. The role can allow theuser to be associated with a grouping of security and privacy settingsthat are commonly invoked for users who are part of the organization.

In an example implementation, an entity such as an enterprise can offera number of predetermined sets of settings for one or more types orroles of users. A particular user may be associated with a particularrole or a selected set of settings. The settings may be associated withthe user and provided to systems and applications as the userparticipates in meetings and other activities where the user mayparticipate in meeting chats. The settings may be transferred to variousapplications and systems, such as those in connected meeting rooms,various user devices, and services.

While many of the described examples are provided in the context ofcertain chat settings, the disclosed embodiments may be applied any typeof interactive messaging applications.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for enabling the participation of anexternal user outside a secure messaging group in an ongoing meeting'schat on a per-message basis. The figure illustrates chat sessions in thecontext of applications 141. In this example, a user can interact withan individual application 141 to launch and participate in applicationssuch as a communications session and send and receive messages. Theapplications 141 may each be configured to display a collaboration pane191 and, in one example, a message pane 192. Various content pertainingto a collaboration session may be displayed in the collaboration pane191. In the illustrated example, a user may receive questions, comments,and other data for the communication session. Other communicativefeatures for functionality may be invoked in other examples. The messagepane 192 of each application 141 may be synchronized to enable a user toreceive data for application 141.

The use of a message pane 192 is one example implementation, and othertypes of communications interfaces may be enabled and provided oncomputing devices 106. The applications 141 may receive and sendcode/data 151. In some configurations, the code/data 151 can be in theform of text, images, media or any other form of data. The messagingservice 120 may maintain messaging information for systems and devicesvia applications 141 and can send, for example, a message to a computingdevice 106A. The messaging service 120 may also monitor video, audio,and other data being communicated during a communications session andidentify triggers that can cause a prompt to be sent to a moderator, orfor security settings to be automatically invoked. The computing device106A may receive moderator inputs for adding participants and send thesettings to the messaging service 120. In response to a request to add auser to a messaging session, the collaboration service 170 may apply thesecurity settings in configuring and rendering content to the computingdevice 106.

The code/data 151 can include data that is stored within storage service110 including a data store 136 and managed by management service 120comprising a management module 138. The code/data 151 can becommunicated to any number of computing devices 106, referred to hereinas computing devices 106B-106N, from a first computing device 106A orthe service 110 via a network 108. Each computing device 106B-106Nassociated with a recipient can display the code/data 151 on a userinterface 195 (195A-195N) by the use of a viewing application 142. Theviewing application 142 can be any suitable application such as apresentation program, a web browser, a media player, etc. The viewingapplication 142 may also be a web-based application. In one embodiment,the viewing application 142 may be a virtual assistant that uses voiceinstead of a visual representation to convey data content, e.g.,facilitating text-to-speech (TTS). In some embodiments, the viewingapplication 142 may be an augmented reality, mixed reality, or virtualreality device and the code/data 151 can be rendered within a virtualreality display.

It should be appreciated that the subject matter described herein may beimplemented as a computer-controlled apparatus, a computer process, acomputing system, or as an article of manufacture such as acomputer-readable storage medium. Among many other benefits, thetechniques shown herein improve efficiencies with respect to a widerange of computing resources. For instance, human interaction with adevice may be improved, as the use of the techniques disclosed hereinenable a user with certain impairments to view and interact with data ina wide range of communications and collaborative scenarios whileoperating a computing device. In addition, improved human interactionimproves other computing resources such as processor and networkresources, e.g., users can work from a reduced number of applicationsand reduce a user's computer interaction, reduce the chances of aninadvertent input, reduce network traffic, and reduce computationalcycles. The techniques disclosed herein reduce the need to pauseapplications, reconfigure settings, incorporate updates for, and togglebetween, a number of applications, including a specialized presentationprogram. Other technical effects other than those mentioned herein canalso be realized from implementations of the technologies disclosedherein.

To illustrate the described techniques using an example, consider anongoing meeting on a sensitive topic. Turning to FIG. 2A, illustrated isan example user interface 200 showing a collaborative session includingfour participants 221A, 221B, 221C, and 221D. Meeting participants maybe engaged in the conversation and collaboration in the active meetingchat pane 230, showing messages 241, 242, and 243.

While messaging in the meeting chat, a user may determine thatinput/brainstorm would be helpful with an external participant namedJane Doe, as shown in message 243. Rather than adding Jane Doe in themeeting chat and sharing all the information for the meeting, the usermay right click on a selected message as shown by input action 250, asshown in in FIG. 2B. FIG. 2C illustrates that in response to the rightclick, an option to “share with external users” menu item 260 may berendered. Referring to FIG. 2D, a dialog box 270 may be opened. Thedialog box 270 may include a search bar 272, where the user can entersearch text. A results box 274 may show results of the text search. Asshown, the user may select Jane Doe from the list. Referring to FIG. 2E,the particular message 242 may be marked with a special icon 280 in themeeting chat indicating that the message is shared with externalparticipants.

FIG. 2F is an example of a display screen 290 presenting a graphicaluser interface (GUI) 292 that illustrates a visual notificationindicating a shared message. As illustrated, the graphical userinterface 292 may be associated with a messaging application such thatit contains conversations, and therefore, may be referred to herein as aconversation GUI 292. In the example of FIG. 2F, the conversation GUI292 includes an app bar 257, a list of conversations/channels 258, andan active conversation pane 294.

The conversations/channels 258 includes a list of conversations that auser (e.g., Jane Doe) is participating in. As illustrated and by exampleonly, the list of conversations/channels 258 may include a “message bySally” indication. Jane Doe may receive other notifications in her chatwindow that a message from Sally is available. When Jane Doe clicks onthe conversation/channel it or otherwise opens the message 296 fromSally, the active pane 294 may indicate a message from the given userSally. In some embodiments, there may be no indication or mention of anyother information related to the originating meeting. The only contentvisible to Jane Doe may be the message body and the name of the sharer.Jane Doe may enter responses 297 which may be shown on the active pane294. In some embodiments, Jane Doe will be able to view the message(s)and will be able to reply to via a text message/image/files/any otherobject that is supported by the messaging application. In addition, theGUI 292 may provide a notification 298 that all the replies will beautomatically shared with a larger list of participants.

Referring to FIG. 2G, when Jane Doe makes a reply, the replies may beautomatically rendered in a manner that is visible as a reply to theselected message. For example, message 299 may be rendered in the mainmeeting chat pane 230 with all the meeting participants so that theparticipants can see what Jane Doe has replied with.

FIG. 3A to FIG. 3H illustrate various embodiments for implementing thetechniques described herein. Turning to FIG. 3A, illustrated is anexample application 300 rendering or otherwise processing messagingsessions for a number of clients 302, 304, 306, and 308, which invarious scenarios can be users or participants in a chat.

Turning to FIG. 3B, illustrated is an example data storage 310 which maystore thereon a database storing chat threads for the clients 302, 304,306, and 308. For each chat thread, the record for each thread mayinclude a list of users participating in each thread. As used herein,the record for each thread as well as other records described herein maybe implemented as a data structure. It will be appreciated by oneskilled in the art that the data structure shown in the figure mayrepresent a data file, a database table, an object stored in a computerstorage, a programmatic structure or any other data container commonlyknown in the art. Each data element included in the data structure mayrepresent one or more fields in a data file, one or more columns of adatabase table, one or more attributes of an object, one or morevariables of a programmatic structure or any other unit of data of adata structure commonly known in the art.

Turning to FIG. 3C, illustrated is data structure 330 which may storethereon a record of messages 322 for each chat thread and associatedtimes for the messages. In some embodiments, metadata can be includedfor each chat thread such as administrator, guest membership, and thelike.

Turning to FIG. 3D, illustrated is an example showing multiple chatthreads 302 and 304 that may be generated, for instance when a side chatis started, such as if a new chat conversation is desired which leads tothe start of a separate chat thread. Turning to FIG. 3E, illustrated isa data structure 332 which may be generated to store thereon a record ofmessages for a new chat session 302 that may have been started due to anew side chat. The new chat thread then stores in the database a recordof messages for the chat thread, associated times for the messages, andmetadata for the chat thread. This can lead to inefficient use ofresources and can limit the visibility of the side chat as the side chathas started as a new thread.

Turning to FIG. 3F, illustrated is an example illustrating oneimplementation based on the embodiments disclosed herein. FIG. 3Fillustrates that each of the messages 322 are associated with a recordof the users who are associated with a particular message. FIG. 3Fillustrates that for the first two of the messages 322, users A, B, andC are in record 324 and users A, B, and C are in record 325. In oneexample, if a side message is created in accordance with the presentdisclosure, record 326 may be generated and include users B, C, andexternal user E. Applicable metadata may be stored for each of themessages associated with records 324, 325, and 326. In this way, therecords for the side messages are still part of the chat thread 1.

Turning to FIG. 3G, illustrated is an example illustrating oneembodiment in which a multi-dimensional data structure is implemented sothat each of the messages 322 are associated with a record of the userswho are associated with a particular message as well as metadata foreach message and its associated users. FIG. 3G illustrates additionalrecords 327, 328, and 329 that are generated as more messages aregenerated that are associated with users A, B, C, and external user E.

Turning to FIG. 3H, illustrated is an example illustrating oneembodiment in which the multi-dimensional data structure is implementedso that each of the messages 322 are associated with a record of theusers who are associated with a particular message, metadata for eachmessage and associated users, and permissions for each message andassociated users. As shown, record 326 includes users A, B, and C havingread/write privileges, while user E only has read privileges. Byimplementing such a multi-dimensional data structure, granular controlmay be provided for each message. Each message may be associated with aset of users that may be independent of other messages that are in thesame chat or a different chat. This may allow, for example, for a singlemessage to be selected and shared with a set of users without the needto demarcate a new chat. Furthermore, the permissions for the set ofusers may be independent of other messages that are in the same chat ora different chat. This may allow, for example, for users associated witha single message to have permission settings that are particular to asingle message. In some embodiments, the permission settings may beinherited from a predecessor message. In some embodiments, thepermission settings may be determined based on roles of the usersassociated with the message. In some embodiments, the permissions may bedetermined based on inputs provided by a moderator or other participant.In some embodiments, the permission settings may be determined based onmachine learning or other automated means of determining permissionsettings based on various inputs.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating aspects of a routine 400 to beperformed by a data processing system for delivering messages among adefined group of users of a communication session. It should beunderstood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the operations ofthe methods disclosed herein are not necessarily presented in anyparticular order and that performance of some or all of the operationsin an alternative order(s) is possible and is contemplated. Theoperations have been presented in the demonstrated order for ease ofdescription and illustration. Operations may be added, omitted,performed together, and/or performed simultaneously, without departingfrom the scope of the appended claims.

It should also be understood that the illustrated methods can end at anytime and need not be performed in their entireties. Some or alloperations of the methods, and/or substantially equivalent operations,can be performed by execution of computer-readable instructions includedon a computer-storage media, as defined herein. The term“computer-readable instructions,” and variants thereof, as used in thedescription and claims, is used expansively herein to include routines,applications, application modules, program modules, programs,components, data structures, algorithms, and the like. Computer-readableinstructions can be implemented on various system configurations,including single-processor or multiprocessor systems, minicomputers,mainframe computers, personal computers, hand-held computing devices,microprocessor-based, programmable consumer electronics, combinationsthereof, and the like.

It should be appreciated that the logical operations described hereinare implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts orprogram modules running on a computing system such as those describedherein) and/or (2) as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuitmodules within the computing system. The implementation is a matter ofchoice dependent on the performance and other requirements of thecomputing system. Accordingly, the logical operations may be implementedin software, in firmware, in special purpose digital logic, and anycombination thereof. Thus, although the routine 400 is described asrunning on a system 40, it can be appreciated that the routine 400 andother operations described herein can be executed on an individualcomputing device, e.g., computing device 44, or several devices.

Additionally, the operations illustrated in FIG. 4 and the other FIGUREScan be implemented in association with the example presentation UIsdescribed above. For instance, the various device(s) and/or module(s)described herein can generate, transmit, receive, and/or display dataassociated with content of a communication session (e.g., live content,broadcasted event, recorded content, etc.) and/or a presentation UI thatincludes renderings of one or more participants of remote computingdevices, avatars, channels, chat sessions, video streams, images,virtual objects, and/or applications associated with a communicationsession.

The routine 400 begins at operation 402, which illustrates causingrendering of a first user interface (UI) on a device of a member in thedefined group, including messages being communicated between the definedgroup of users of the communication session, the system permitting thedefined group of users access to the messages of the communicationsession.

Operation 404 illustrates receiving a selection of a subset of themessages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-member userwho is not a member of the defined group. The non-member user maycorrespond to an external user or an external participant.

Operation 406 illustrates delivering the selected message set to thenon-member user.

Operation 408 illustrates causing rendering of, on a display device ofthe non-member user, a second UI including the selected message set andsubsequent messages exchanged between the non-member user and a subsetof the users in the defined group directed to the selected message set,but not full access to other subsequent messages in the defined groupnot directed to the selected message set. For example, the subsequentmessages exchanged between the non-member user and the subset of theusers in the defined group directed to the selected message set isillustrated in FIG. 2F. The second UI includes messages that areexchanged in response to the selected message set and that are exchangedbetween the non-member user and the subset of the users in the definedgroup. “Direct to” thus refers to such messages that are part of theside chat that are associated with the selected message set.

Operation 410 illustrates causing rendering of, on the first UI of thedevice of the member in the defined group, subsequent messages exchangedbetween the non-member user and the defined group. In an embodiment, thesubsequent messages may be rendered in context of messages prior to theselected message. For example, the subsequent messages may be renderedin sequence following the selected message.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating aspects of a routine 500 formessaging among users of a communication session.

The routine 500 begins at operation 502, where the system generates afirst data object indicative of the defined group of users of thecommunication session, messages being communicated between the definedgroup of users, and permissions defined for the defined group of usersto access content of the communication session.

At operation 504, the system can receive a selection of a message setincluding a subset of the messages of the defined group forcorresponding with a non-member user who is not a member of the definedgroup.

At operation 506, in response to receiving the selection the systemupdates the first data object to include the selected message set andsubsequent messages exchanged between the non-member user and a subsetof the users in the defined group directed to the selected message set,and permissions defined for the additional participant to limit fullaccess to other subsequent messages in the defined group not directed tothe selected message set. For example, the subsequent messages exchangedbetween the non-member user and the subset of the users in the definedgroup directed to the selected message set is illustrated in FIG. 2F.The UI includes messages that are exchanged in response to the selectedmessage set and that are exchanged between the non-member user and thesubset of the users in the defined group. “Direct to” thus refers tosuch messages that are part of the side chat that are associated withthe selected message set.

At operation 508, the system can send, to a display device of thenon-member user, the selected message set and subsequent messagesexchanged between the non-member user and a subset of the users in thedefined group directed to the selected message set, wherein access toother subsequent messages in the defined group not directed to theselected message set is controlled by the permissions for the non-memberuser.

At operation 510, the system can send, to the first UI of the device ofthe member in the defined group, subsequent messages exchanged betweenthe non-member user and the defined group, wherein access to themessages being communicated between the defined group of users iscontrolled by the permissions for the defined group. In an embodiment,the subsequent messages may be rendered in context of messages prior tothe selected message. For example, the subsequent messages may berendered in sequence following the selected message.

It should be appreciated that the above-described subject matter may beimplemented as a computer-controlled apparatus, a computer process, acomputing system, or as an article of manufacture such as acomputer-readable storage medium. The operations of the example methodsare illustrated in individual blocks and summarized with reference tothose blocks. The methods are illustrated as logical flows of blocks,each block of which can represent one or more operations that can beimplemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. In thecontext of software, the operations represent computer-executableinstructions stored on one or more computer-readable media that, whenexecuted by one or more processors, enable the one or more processors toperform the recited operations.

Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs,objects, modules, components, data structures, and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular abstract data types. Theorder in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described operationscan be executed in any order, combined in any order, subdivided intomultiple sub-operations, and/or executed in parallel to implement thedescribed processes. The described processes can be performed byresources associated with one or more device(s) such as one or moreinternal or external CPUs or GPUs, and/or one or more pieces of hardwarelogic such as field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), digital signalprocessors (“DSPs”), or other types of accelerators.

All of the methods and processes described above may be embodied in, andfully automated via, software code modules executed by one or moregeneral purpose computers or processors. The code modules may be storedin any type of computer-readable storage medium or other computerstorage device, such as those described below. Some or all of themethods may alternatively be embodied in specialized computer hardware,such as that described below.

Any routine descriptions, elements or blocks in the flow diagramsdescribed herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should beunderstood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions ofcode that include one or more executable instructions for implementingspecific logical functions or elements in the routine. Alternateimplementations are included within the scope of the examples describedherein in which elements or functions may be deleted, or executed out oforder from that shown or discussed, including substantiallysynchronously or in reverse order, depending on the functionalityinvolved as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example environment 600 in which asystem 602 can implement the techniques disclosed herein. In someimplementations, a system 602 may function to collect, analyze, andshare content that is displayed to users of a communication session 604.As illustrated, the communication session 604 may be implemented betweena number of client computing devices 606(1) through 606(N) (where N is anumber having a value of two or greater) that are associated with thesystem 602 or are part of the system 602. The client computing devices606(1) through 606(N) enable users, also referred to as individuals, toparticipate in the communication session 604. The client computingdevices 606 can corelate to the user computing devices 106 shown inFIG. 1. Although some examples show one of the computers 606 processingaspects of the present techniques, it can be appreciated that thetechniques disclosed herein can be applied to other computing devicesand are not to be construed as limiting.

In this example, the communication session 604 is hosted, over one ormore network(s) 608, by the system 602. That is, the system 602 canprovide a service that enables users of the client computing devices606(1) through 606(N) to participate in the communication session 604(e.g., via a live viewing and/or a recorded viewing). Consequently, a“participant” to the communication session 604 can comprise a userand/or a client computing device (e.g., multiple users may be in a roomparticipating in a communication session via the use of a single clientcomputing device), each of which can communicate with otherparticipants. As an alternative, the communication session 604 can behosted by one of the client computing devices 606(1) through 606(N)utilizing peer-to-peer technologies. The system 602 can also host chatconversations and other team collaboration functionality (e.g., as partof an application suite).

In some implementations, such chat conversations and other teamcollaboration functionality are considered external communicationsessions distinct from the communication session 604. A computerizedagent to collect participant data in the communication session 604 maybe able to link to such external communication sessions. Therefore, thecomputerized agent may receive information, such as date, time, sessionparticulars, and the like, that enables connectivity to such externalcommunication sessions. In one example, a chat conversation can beconducted in accordance with the communication session 604.Additionally, the system 602 may host the communication session 604,which includes at least a plurality of participants co-located at ameeting location, such as a meeting room or auditorium, or located indisparate locations.

In the examples described herein, client computing devices 606(1)through 606(N) participating in the communication session 604 areconfigured to receive and render for display, on a user interface of adisplay screen, communication data. The communication data can comprisea collection of various instances, or streams, of live content and/orrecorded content. The collection of various instances, or streams, oflive content and/or recorded content may be provided by one or morecameras, such as video cameras. For example, an individual stream oflive or recorded content can comprise media data associated with a videofeed provided by a video camera (e.g., audio and visual data thatcapture the appearance and speech of a user participating in thecommunication session). In some implementations, the video feeds maycomprise such audio and visual data, one or more still images, and/orone or more avatars. The one or more still images may also comprise oneor more avatars.

Another example of an individual stream of live or recorded content cancomprise media data that includes an avatar of a user participating inthe communication session along with audio data that captures the speechof the user. Yet another example of an individual stream of live orrecorded content can comprise media data that includes a file displayedon a display screen along with audio data that captures the speech of auser. Accordingly, the various streams of live or recorded contentwithin the communication data enable a remote meeting to be facilitatedbetween a group of people and the sharing of content within the group ofpeople. In some implementations, the various streams of live or recordedcontent within the communication data may originate from a plurality ofco-located video cameras, positioned in a space, such as a room, torecord or stream live a presentation that includes one or moreindividuals presenting and one or more individuals consuming presentedcontent.

A participant or attendee can view content of the communication session604 live as activity occurs, or alternatively, via a recording at alater time after the activity occurs. In examples described herein,client computing devices 606(1) through 606(N) participating in thecommunication session 604 are configured to receive and render fordisplay, on a user interface of a display screen, communication data.The communication data can comprise a collection of various instances,or streams, of live and/or recorded content. For example, an individualstream of content can comprise media data associated with a video feed(e.g., audio and visual data that capture the appearance and speech of auser participating in the communication session). Another example of anindividual stream of content can comprise media data that includes anavatar of a user participating in the conference session along withaudio data that captures the speech of the user. Yet another example ofan individual stream of content can comprise media data that includes acontent item displayed on a display screen and/or audio data thatcaptures the speech of a user. Accordingly, the various streams ofcontent within the communication data enable a meeting or a broadcastpresentation to be facilitated amongst a group of people dispersedacross remote locations. Each stream can also include text, audio andvideo data, such as the data communicated within a channel, chat board,or a private messaging service.

A participant or attendee to a communication session is a person that isin range of a camera, or other image and/or audio capture device suchthat actions and/or sounds of the person which are produced while theperson is viewing and/or listening to the content being shared via thecommunication session can be captured (e.g., recorded). For instance, aparticipant may be sitting in a crowd viewing the shared content live ata broadcast location where a stage presentation occurs. Or a participantmay be sitting in an office conference room viewing the shared contentof a communication session with other colleagues via a display screen.Even further, a participant may be sitting or standing in front of apersonal device (e.g., tablet, smartphone, computer, etc.) viewing theshared content of a communication session alone in their office or athome.

The system 602 includes device(s) 610. The device(s) 610 and/or othercomponents of the system 602 can include distributed computing resourcesthat communicate with one another and/or with the client computingdevices 606(1) through 606(N) via the one or more network(s) 608. Insome examples, the system 602 may be an independent system that istasked with managing aspects of one or more communication sessions suchas communication session 604. As an example, the system 602 may bemanaged by entities such as SLACK, WEBEX, GOTOMEETING, GOOGLE HANGOUTS,etc.

Network(s) 608 may include, for example, public networks such as theInternet, private networks such as an institutional and/or personalintranet, or some combination of private and public networks. Network(s)608 may also include any type of wired and/or wireless network,including but not limited to local area networks (“LANs”), wide areanetworks (“WANs”), satellite networks, cable networks, Wi-Fi networks,WiMax networks, mobile communications networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, and soforth) or any combination thereof. Network(s) 608 may utilizecommunications protocols, including packet-based and/or datagram-basedprotocols such as Internet protocol (“IP”), transmission controlprotocol (“TCP”), user datagram protocol (“UDP”), or other types ofprotocols. Moreover, network(s) 608 may also include a number of devicesthat facilitate network communications and/or form a hardware basis forthe networks, such as switches, routers, gateways, access points,firewalls, base stations, repeaters, backbone devices, and the like.

In some examples, network(s) 608 may further include devices that enableconnection to a wireless network, such as a wireless access point(“WAP”). Examples support connectivity through WAPs that send andreceive data over various electromagnetic frequencies (e.g., radiofrequencies), including WAPs that support Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (“IEEE”) 802.6 standards (e.g., 802.6g, 802.6n,802.6ac and so forth), and other standards.

In various examples, device(s) 610 may include one or more computingdevices that operate in a cluster or other grouped configuration toshare resources, balance load, increase performance, provide fail-oversupport or redundancy, or for other purposes. For instance, device(s)610 may belong to a variety of classes of devices such as traditionalserver-type devices, desktop computer-type devices, and/or mobile-typedevices. Thus, although illustrated as a single type of device or aserver-type device, device(s) 610 may include a diverse variety ofdevice types and are not limited to a particular type of device.Device(s) 610 may represent, but are not limited to, server computers,desktop computers, web-server computers, personal computers, mobilecomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, or any other sort ofcomputing device.

A client computing device (e.g., one of client computing device(s)606(1) through 606(N)) may belong to a variety of classes of devices,which may be the same as, or different from, device(s) 610, such astraditional client-type devices, desktop computer-type devices,mobile-type devices, special purpose-type devices, embedded-typedevices, and/or wearable-type devices. Thus, a client computing devicecan include, but is not limited to, a desktop computer, a game consoleand/or a gaming device, a tablet computer, a personal data assistant(“PDA”), a mobile phone/tablet hybrid, a laptop computer, atelecommunication device, a computer navigation type client computingdevice such as a satellite-based navigation system including a globalpositioning system (“GPS”) device, a wearable device, a virtual reality(“VR”) device, an augmented reality (“AR”) device, an implantedcomputing device, an automotive computer, a network-enabled television,a thin client, a terminal, an Internet of Things (“IoT”) device, a workstation, a media player, a personal video recorder (“PVR”), a set-topbox, a camera, an integrated component (e.g., a peripheral device) forinclusion in a computing device, an appliance, or any other sort ofcomputing device. Moreover, the client computing device may include acombination of the earlier listed examples of the client computingdevice such as, for example, desktop computer-type devices or amobile-type device in combination with a wearable device, etc.

Client computing device(s) 606(1) through 606(N) of the various classesand device types can represent any type of computing device having oneor more data processing unit(s) 692 operably connected tocomputer-readable media 694 such as via a bus 616, which in someinstances can include one or more of a system bus, a data bus, anaddress bus, a PCI bus, a Mini-PCI bus, and any variety of local,peripheral, and/or independent buses.

Executable instructions stored on computer-readable media 694 mayinclude, for example, an operating system 619, a client module 620, aprofile module 622, and other modules, programs, or applications thatare loadable and executable by data processing units(s) 692.

Client computing device(s) 606(1) through 606(N) (which are alsoreferred to herein as computing devices 104A-104N) may also include oneor more interface(s) 624 to enable communications between clientcomputing device(s) 606(1) through 606(N) and other networked devices,such as device(s) 610, over network(s) 608. Such network interface(s)624 may include one or more network interface controllers (NICs) orother types of transceiver devices (not shown in FIG. 6) to send andreceive communications and/or data over a network. Moreover, clientcomputing device(s) 606(1) through 606(N) can include input/output(“I/O”) interfaces (devices) 626 that enable communications withinput/output devices such as user input devices including peripheralinput devices (e.g., a game controller, a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, avoice input device such as a microphone, a video camera for obtainingand providing video feeds and/or still images, a touch input device, agestural input device, and the like) and/or output devices includingperipheral output devices (e.g., a display, a printer, audio speakers, ahaptic output device, and the like). FIG. 6 illustrates that clientcomputing device 606(1) is in some way connected to a display device(e.g., a display screen 629(1)), which can display a UI according to thetechniques described herein.

In the example environment 600 of FIG. 6, client computing devices606(1) through 606(N) may use their respective client modules 620 toconnect with one another and/or other external device(s) in order toparticipate in the communication session 604, or in order to contributeactivity to a collaboration environment. For instance, a first user mayutilize a client computing device 606(1) to communicate with a seconduser of another client computing device 606(2). When executing clientmodules 620, the users may share data, which may cause the clientcomputing device 606(1) to connect to the system 602 and/or the otherclient computing devices 606(2) through 606(N) over the network(s) 608.

The client computing device(s) 606(1) through 606(N) (each of which arealso referred to herein as a “data processing system”) may use theirrespective profile modules 622 to generate participant profiles (notshown in FIG. 6) and provide the participant profiles to other clientcomputing devices and/or to the device(s) 610 of the system 602. Aparticipant profile may include one or more of an identity of a user ora group of users (e.g., a name, a unique identifier (“ID”), etc.), userdata such as personal data, machine data such as location (e.g., an IPaddress, a room in a building, etc.) and technical capabilities, etc.Participant profiles may be utilized to register participants forcommunication sessions.

As shown in FIG. 6, the device(s) 610 of the system 602 include a servermodule 630 and an output module 632. In this example, the server module630 is configured to receive, from individual client computing devicessuch as client computing devices 606(1) through 606(N), media streams634(1) through 634(N). As described above, media streams can comprise avideo feed (e.g., audio and visual data associated with a user), audiodata which is to be output with a presentation of an avatar of a user(e.g., an audio only experience in which video data of the user is nottransmitted), text data (e.g., text messages), file data and/or screensharing data (e.g., a document, a slide deck, an image, a videodisplayed on a display screen, etc.), and so forth. Thus, the servermodule 630 is configured to receive a collection of various mediastreams 634(1) through 634(N) during a live viewing of the communicationsession 604 (the collection being referred to herein as “media data634”). In some scenarios, not all of the client computing devices thatparticipate in the communication session 604 provide a media stream. Forexample, a client computing device may only be a consuming, or a“listening”, device such that it only receives content associated withthe communication session 604 but does not provide any content to thecommunication session 604.

In various examples, the server module 630 can select aspects of themedia streams 634 that are to be shared with individual ones of theparticipating client computing devices 606(1) through 606(N).Consequently, the server module 630 may be configured to generatesession data 636 based on the streams 634 and/or pass the session data636 to the output module 632. Then, the output module 632 maycommunicate communication data 639 to the client computing devices(e.g., client computing devices 606(1) through 606(3) participating in alive viewing of the communication session). The communication data 639may include video, audio, and/or other content data, provided by theoutput module 632 based on content 650 associated with the output module632 and based on received session data 636.

As shown, the output module 632 transmits communication data 639(1) toclient computing device 606(1), and transmits communication data 639(2)to client computing device 606(2), and transmits communication data639(3) to client computing device 606(3), etc. The communication data639 transmitted to the client computing devices can be the same or canbe different (e.g., positioning of streams of content within a userinterface may vary from one device to the next).

In various implementations, the device(s) 610 and/or the client module620 can include GUI presentation module 640. The GUI presentation module640 may be configured to analyze communication data 639 that is fordelivery to one or more of the client computing devices 606.Specifically, the GUI presentation module 640, at the device(s) 610and/or the client computing device 606, may analyze communication data639 to determine an appropriate manner for displaying video, image,and/or content on the display screen 629(1) of an associated clientcomputing device 606. In some implementations, the GUI presentationmodule 640 may provide video, image, and/or content to a presentationGUI 646 rendered on the display screen 629(1) of the associated clientcomputing device 606. The presentation GUI 646 may be caused to berendered on the display screen 629(1) by the GUI presentation module640. The presentation GUI 646 may include the video, image, and/orcontent analyzed by the GUI presentation module 640.

In some implementations, the presentation GUI 646 may include aplurality of sections or grids that may render or comprise video, image,and/or content for display on the display screen 629. For example, afirst section of the presentation GUI 646 may include a video feed of apresenter or individual, and a second section of the presentation GUI646 may include a video feed of an individual consuming meetinginformation provided by the presenter or individual. The GUIpresentation module 640 may populate the first and second sections ofthe presentation GUI 646 in a manner that properly imitates anenvironment experience that the presenter and the individual may besharing.

In some implementations, the GUI presentation module 640 may enlarge orprovide a zoomed view of the individual represented by the video feed inorder to highlight a reaction, such as a facial feature, the individualhad while viewing the presenter. In some implementations, thepresentation GUI 646 may include a video feed of a plurality ofparticipants associated with a meeting, such as a general communicationsession. In other implementations, the presentation GUI 646 may beassociated with a channel, such as a chat channel, enterprise teamschannel, or the like. Therefore, the presentation GUI 646 may beassociated with an external communication session that is different thanthe general communication session.

FIG. 7 illustrates a diagram that shows example components of an exampledevice 700 (also referred to herein as a “computing device”) configuredto generate data for some of the user interfaces disclosed herein. Thedevice 700 may generate data that may include one or more sections thatmay render or comprise video, images, virtual objects, and/or contentfor display on the display screen 179. The device 700 may represent oneof the device(s) described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, thedevice 700 may represent one of the client computing devices 1106.

As illustrated, the device 700 includes one or more data processingunit(s) 702, computer-readable media 704, and communication interface(s)706. The components of the device 700 are operatively connected, forexample, via a bus 709, which may include one or more of a system bus, adata bus, an address bus, a PCI bus, a Mini-PCI bus, and any variety oflocal, peripheral, and/or independent buses.

As utilized herein, data processing unit(s), such as the data processingunit(s) 702 and/or data processing unit(s)1192, may represent, forexample, a CPU-type data processing unit, a GPU-type data processingunit, a field-programmable gate array (“FPGA”), another class of DSP, orother hardware logic components that may, in some instances, be drivenby a CPU. For example, and without limitation, illustrative types ofhardware logic components that may be utilized includeApplication-Specific Integrated Circuits (“ASICs”), Application-SpecificStandard Products (“ASSPs”), System-on-a-Chip Systems (“SOCs”), ComplexProgrammable Logic Devices (“CPLDs”), etc.

As utilized herein, computer-readable media, such as computer-readablemedia 704 and computer-readable media 1194, may store instructionsexecutable by the data processing unit(s). The computer-readable mediamay also store instructions executable by external data processing unitssuch as by an external CPU, an external GPU, and/or executable by anexternal accelerator, such as an FPGA type accelerator, a DSP typeaccelerator, or any other internal or external accelerator. In variousexamples, at least one CPU, GPU, and/or accelerator is incorporated in acomputing device, while in some examples one or more of a CPU, GPU,and/or accelerator is external to a computing device.

Computer-readable media, which might also be referred to herein as acomputer-readable medium, may include computer storage media and/orcommunication media. Computer storage media may include one or more ofvolatile memory, nonvolatile memory, and/or other persistent and/orauxiliary computer storage media, removable and non-removable computerstorage media implemented in any method or technology for storage ofinformation such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data. Thus, computer storage media includestangible and/or physical forms of media included in a device and/orhardware component that is part of a device or external to a device,including but not limited to random access memory (“RAM”), staticrandom-access memory (“SRAM”), dynamic random-access memory (“DRAM”),phase change memory (“PCM”), read-only memory (“ROM”), erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), flash memory, compact discread-only memory (“CD-ROM”), digital versatile disks (“DVDs”), opticalcards or other optical storage media, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage, magnetic cards or other magnetic storage devicesor media, solid-state memory devices, storage arrays, network attachedstorage, storage area networks, hosted computer storage or any otherstorage memory, storage device, and/or storage medium that can be usedto store and maintain information for access by a computing device.

In contrast to computer storage media, communication media may embodycomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave, or othertransmission mechanism. As defined herein, computer storage media doesnot include communication media. That is, computer storage media doesnot include communications media consisting solely of a modulated datasignal, a carrier wave, or a propagated signal, per se.

Communication interface(s) 706 may represent, for example, networkinterface controllers (“NICs”) (not shown in FIG. 7) or other types oftransceiver devices to send and receive communications over a network.Furthermore, the communication interface(s) 706 may include one or morevideo cameras and/or audio devices 722 to enable generation of videofeeds and/or still images, and so forth.

In the illustrated example, computer-readable media 704 includes a datastore 708. In some examples, the data store 708 includes data storagesuch as a database, data warehouse, or other type of structured orunstructured data storage. In some examples, the data store 708 includesa corpus and/or a relational database with one or more tables, indices,stored procedures, and so forth to enable data access including one ormore of hypertext markup language (“HTML”) tables, resource descriptionframework (“RDF”) tables, web ontology language (“OWL”) tables, and/orextensible markup language (“XML”) tables, for example.

The data store 708 may store data for the operations of processes,applications, components, and/or modules stored in computer-readablemedia 704 and/or executed by data processing unit(s) 702 and/oraccelerator(s). For instance, in some examples, the data store 708 maystore session data 710 (e.g., session data 1136), profile data 77 (e.g.,associated with a participant profile), and/or other data. The sessiondata 710 can include a total number of participants (e.g., users and/orclient computing devices) in a communication session, activity thatoccurs in the communication session, a list of invitees to thecommunication session, and/or other data related to when and how thecommunication session is conducted or hosted. The data store 708 mayalso include content data 714, such as the content that includes video,audio, or other content for rendering and display on one or more of thedisplay screens 179.

Alternately, some or all of the above-referenced data can be stored onseparate memories 716 on board one or more data processing unit(s) 702such as a memory on board a CPU-type processor, a GPU-type processor, anFPGA-type accelerator, a DSP-type accelerator, and/or anotheraccelerator. In this example, the computer-readable media 704 alsoincludes an operating system 718 and application programminginterface(s) 711 (APIs) configured to expose the functionality and thedata of the device 700 to other devices. Additionally, thecomputer-readable media 704 includes one or more modules such as theserver module 730, the output module 732, and the GUI presentationmodule 740, although the number of illustrated modules is just anexample, and the number may vary higher or lower. That is, functionalitydescribed herein in association with the illustrated modules may beperformed by a fewer number of modules or a larger number of modules onone device or spread across multiple devices.

It is to be appreciated that conditional language used herein such as,among others, “can,” “could,” “might” or “may,” unless specificallystated otherwise, are understood within the context to present thatcertain examples include, while other examples do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that certain features, elements and/or stepsare in any way required for one or more examples or that one or moreexamples necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether certain features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular example. Conjunctivelanguage such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y or Z,” unlessspecifically stated otherwise, is to be understood to present that anitem, term, etc. may be either X, Y, or Z, or a combination thereof.

The disclosure presented herein also encompasses the subject matter setforth in the following clauses:

Clause 1: A machine-implemented method for controlling a data processingsystem for delivering messages among a defined group of users of acommunication session, the method comprising:

generating, by the data processing system, a first data objectindicative of the defined group of users of the communication session,messages being communicated between the defined group of users, andpermissions defined for the defined group of users to access content ofthe communication session;

receiving a selection of a message set including a subset of themessages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-member userwho is not a member of the defined group;

in response to receiving the selection, updating, by the data processingsystem, the first data object to include the selected message set andsubsequent messages exchanged between the non-member user and a subsetof the users in the defined group directed to the selected message set,and permissions defined for the non-member user to limit full access toother subsequent messages in the defined group not directed to theselected message set;

sending, by the data processing system to a display device of thenon-member user, the selected message set and subsequent messagesexchanged between the non-member user and the subset of the users in thedefined group directed to the selected message set, wherein access toother subsequent messages in the defined group not directed to theselected message set is controlled by the permissions for the non-memberuser; and

sending, by the data processing system to a display device of themembers in the defined group, subsequent messages exchanged between thenon-member user and the defined group, wherein access to the messagesbeing communicated between the defined group of users is controlled bythe permissions for the defined group.

Clause 2: The method of clause 1, wherein the subsequent messages arerendered on the display device of the members in the defined group as avisually separate messaging session within a full message view ofprevious messages that were rendered on the display device of themembers in the defined group.

Clause 3: The method of any of clauses 1-2, wherein the first dataobject includes a record for each of the messages, and wherein therecord for each message includes users associated with each message.

Clause 4: The method of any of clauses 1-3, wherein the record for eachmessage includes permissions for each of the users associated with eachmessage.

Clause 5: The method of any of clauses 1-4, wherein the non-member useris assigned a first access permission level and the users are assigned asecond access permission level.

Clause 6: The method of any of clauses 1-5, wherein the first accesspermission level prevents indication of a full listing of the users ofthe communication session and content of the communication session.

Clause 7: The method of clauses 1-6, wherein the permissions aredetermined based on a role of each user.

Clause 8: The method of any of clauses 1-7, wherein the permissions aredetermined based on input from a moderator of the communication session.

Clause 9: The method of any of clauses 1-8, further comprising enablinginvitation of further participants to the communication session inresponse to selection of additional ones of the messages.

Clause 10: The method of any of clauses 1-9 further comprising enablinginvitation of further participants to the communication session inresponse to selection of a file that was shared during the communicationsession, wherein the first data object includes data indicative ofobjects being communicated between the defined group of users.

Clause 11: A system, comprising:

-   -   one or more data processing units; and    -   a computer-readable medium having encoded thereon        computer-executable instructions to cause the one or more data        processing units to perform operations comprising:

generating, by a collaboration system, a first data record indicative ofmessages being communicated between a defined group of users of acommunication session, each of the messages identifying users havingshared each message, and permissions for the identified users to accesscontent of the communication session;

receiving a selection of a message set including a subset of themessages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-member userwho is not a member of the defined group;

in response to receiving the selection, updating the first data recordto include the selected message set and subsequent messages exchangedbetween the non-member user and a subset of the users in the definedgroup directed to the selected message set, each of the subsequentmessages identifying the users in the defined group and the non-memberuser, and permissions for the non-member user to access content of thecommunication session;

sending, to a display device of one the member in the defined group,subsequent messages exchanged between the non-member user and thedefined group, wherein access by the users to the subsequent messages iscontrolled by the permissions for the users of the defined group; and

sending, to a display device of the non-member user, the selectedmessage set and subsequent messages exchanged between the non-memberuser and a subset of the users in the defined group directed to theselected message set, wherein access by the non-member user to thesubsequent messages is controlled by the permissions for the non-memberuser.

Clause 12: The system of clause 11, wherein the subsequent messages arerendered on the first UI as a visually separate messaging session withina full message view of previous messages that were rendered on the firstUI.

Clause 13: The system of any of clauses 11 and 12, wherein thepermissions are determined based on a role of each user.

Clause 14: The system of any clauses 11-13, further comprising enablinginvitation of further participants to the communication session inresponse to selection of a file that was shared during the communicationsession, wherein the first data object includes data indicative ofobjects being communicated between the defined group of users.

Clause 15: The system of any clauses 11-14, wherein the non-member useris assigned a first access permission level and the users are assigned asecond access permission level.

Clause 16: A system, comprising:

means for generating a first data object indicative of a defined groupof users of a communication session, messages being communicated betweenthe defined group of users, and permissions defined for the definedgroup of users to access content of the communication session;

means for receiving a selection of a message set including a subset ofthe messages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-memberuser who is not a member of the defined group;

means for in response to receiving the selection, updating the firstdata object to include the selected message set and subsequent messagesexchanged between the non-member user and a subset of the users in thedefined group directed to the selected message set, and permissionsdefined for the non-member user to limit full access to other subsequentmessages in the defined group not directed to the selected message set;

means for sending, to a display device of the non-member user, theselected message set and subsequent messages exchanged between thenon-member user and a subset of the users in the defined group directedto the selected message set, wherein access to other subsequent messagesin the defined group not directed to the selected message set iscontrolled by the permissions for the non-member user; and

means for sending, to the first UI of the device of the member in thedefined group, subsequent messages exchanged between the non-member userand the defined group, wherein access to the messages being communicatedbetween the defined group of users is controlled by the permissions forthe defined group.

Clause 17: The system of clause 16, further comprising means forenabling invitation of further participants to the communication sessionin response to selection of additional ones of the messages.

Clause 18: The system of any of clauses 16 and 17, further comprisingmeans for enabling invitation of further participants to thecommunication session in response to selection of a file that was sharedduring the communication session.

Clause 19: The system of any of the clauses 16-18, wherein the firstdata object includes a record for each of the messages, and wherein therecord for each message includes users associated with each message, andwherein the record for each message includes permissions for each of theusers associated with each message.

Clause 20: The system of any of the clauses 16-19, wherein thenon-member user is assigned a first access permission level and theusers are assigned a second access permission level, wherein the firstaccess permission level prevents indication of a full listing of theusers of the communication session and content of the communicationsession.

It should also be appreciated that many variations and modifications maybe made to the above-described examples, the elements of which are to beunderstood as being among other acceptable examples. All suchmodifications and variations are intended to be included herein withinthe scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.

In closing, although the various configurations have been described inlanguage specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, itis to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appendedrepresentations is not necessarily limited to the specific features oracts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A machine-implemented method for controlling adata processing system for delivering messages among a defined group ofusers of a communication session, the method comprising: generating, bythe data processing system, a first data object indicative of thedefined group of users of the communication session, messages beingcommunicated between the defined group of users, and permissions definedfor the defined group of users to access content of the communicationsession; receiving a selection of a message set including a subset ofthe messages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-memberuser who is not a member of the defined group; in response to receivingthe selection, updating, by the data processing system, the first dataobject to include the selected message set and subsequent messagesexchanged between the non-member user and a subset of the users in thedefined group directed to the selected message set, and permissionsdefined for the non-member user to limit full access to other subsequentmessages in the defined group not directed to the selected message set;sending, by the data processing system to a display device of thenon-member user, the selected message set and subsequent messagesexchanged between the non-member user and the subset of the users in thedefined group directed to the selected message set, wherein access toother subsequent messages in the defined group not directed to theselected message set is controlled by the permissions for the non-memberuser; and sending, by the data processing system to a display device ofthe members in the defined group, subsequent messages exchanged betweenthe non-member user and the defined group, wherein access to themessages being communicated between the defined group of users iscontrolled by the permissions for the defined group.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the subsequent messages are rendered on the displaydevice of the members in the defined group as a visually separatemessaging session within a full message view of previous messages thatwere rendered on the display device of the members in the defined group.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data object includes arecord for each of the messages, and wherein the record for each messageincludes users associated with each message.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the record for each message includes permissions for each of theusers associated with each message.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe non-member user is assigned a first access permission level and theusers are assigned a second access permission level.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the first access permission level prevents indicationof a full listing of the users of the communication session and contentof the communication session.
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein thepermissions are determined based on a role of each user.
 8. The methodof claim 1, wherein the permissions are determined based on input from amoderator of the communication session.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising enabling invitation of further participants to thecommunication session in response to selection of additional ones of themessages.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising enablinginvitation of further participants to the communication session inresponse to selection of a file that was shared during the communicationsession, wherein the first data object includes data indicative ofobjects being communicated between the defined group of users.
 11. Asystem, comprising: one or more data processing units; and acomputer-readable medium having encoded thereon computer-executableinstructions to cause the one or more data processing units to performoperations comprising: generating, by a collaboration system, a firstdata record indicative of messages being communicated between a definedgroup of users of a communication session, each of the messagesidentifying users having shared each message, and permissions for theidentified users to access content of the communication session;receiving a selection of a message set including a subset of themessages of the defined group for corresponding with a non-member userwho is not a member of the defined group; in response to receiving theselection, updating the first data record to include the selectedmessage set and subsequent messages exchanged between the non-memberuser and a subset of the users in the defined group directed to theselected message set, each of the subsequent messages identifying theusers in the defined group and the non-member user, and permissions forthe non-member user to access content of the communication session;sending, to a display device of one the member in the defined group,subsequent messages exchanged between the non-member user and thedefined group, wherein access by the users to the subsequent messages iscontrolled by the permissions for the users of the defined group; andsending, to a display device of the non-member user, the selectedmessage set and subsequent messages exchanged between the non-memberuser and a subset of the users in the defined group directed to theselected message set, wherein access by the non-member user to thesubsequent messages is controlled by the permissions for the non-memberuser.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the subsequent messages arerendered on the first UI as a visually separate messaging session withina full message view of previous messages that were rendered on the firstUI.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the permissions are determinedbased on a role of each user.
 14. The system of claim 12, furthercomprising enabling invitation of further participants to thecommunication session in response to selection of a file that was sharedduring the communication session, wherein the first data record includesdata indicative of objects being communicated between the defined groupof users.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the non-member user isassigned a first access permission level and the users are assigned asecond access permission level.
 16. A system, comprising: means forgenerating a first data object indicative of a defined group of users ofa communication session, messages being communicated between the definedgroup of users, and permissions defined for the defined group of usersto access content of the communication session; means for receiving aselection of a message set including a subset of the messages of thedefined group for corresponding with a non-member user who is not amember of the defined group; means for in response to receiving theselection, updating the first data object to include the selectedmessage set and subsequent messages exchanged between the non-memberuser and a subset of the users in the defined group directed to theselected message set, and permissions defined for the non-member user tolimit full access to other subsequent messages in the defined group notdirected to the selected message set; means for sending, to a displaydevice of the non-member user, the selected message set and subsequentmessages exchanged between the non-member user and a subset of the usersin the defined group directed to the selected message set, whereinaccess to other subsequent messages in the defined group not directed tothe selected message set is controlled by the permissions for thenon-member user; and means for sending, to the first UI of the device ofthe member in the defined group, subsequent messages exchanged betweenthe non-member user and the defined group, wherein access to themessages being communicated between the defined group of users iscontrolled by the permissions for the defined group.
 17. The system ofclaim 16, further comprising means for enabling invitation of furtherparticipants to the communication session in response to selection ofadditional ones of the messages.
 18. The system of claim 16, furthercomprising means for enabling invitation of further participants to thecommunication session in response to selection of a file that was sharedduring the communication session.
 19. The system of claim 16, whereinthe first data object includes a record for each of the messages, andwherein the record for each message includes users associated with eachmessage, and wherein the record for each message includes permissionsfor each of the users associated with each message.
 20. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the non-member user is assigned a first accesspermission level and the users are assigned a second access permissionlevel, wherein the first access permission level prevents indication ofa full listing of the users of the communication session and content ofthe communication session.